The claim

A widely shared photo on social media shows a column of Russian military vehicles with the entire alphabet painted on the front of the vehicle. This is presumably intended to establish a connection to the typical Z with which the vehicles are usually marked.

Our conclusion

The photo is manipulated. The original photo shows the familiar Z on the vehicle fronts. The alphabets were added later using image editing.

The fake photo with alphabet

The edited image appears, for example, on the Facebook page “The Counterpart”.

The post is tagged with the hashtag #Realsatire and discusses the fact that the use of the entire alphabet by the Russian troops means that all other letters are now also “banned”. The author apparently interprets this as a supposedly clever reaction by Russia to the increasing avoidance of the single letter “Z” in public communication by Ukraine’s supporters.

The Z

In the Ukrainian war, the Z has become a symbol of support for the Russian troops beyond the markings on vehicles. It was first spotted on the vehicles and uniforms of Russian troops during their attack on Ukraine, and later appeared on civilian vehicles and civilian clothing. Russian house walls were marked with a Z and entire house walls were painted with it. While it was initially unclear what the Z stood for, the Russian Ministry of Defense posted on Instagram on March 2nd and provided the explanation:

The Z stands for “Za Pobedu” and translated means: “To victory”.

The Z has now emerged as a sign of support for the Russians in their war of aggression against Ukraine. Showing the Z means supporting the war and Russian President Putin. It has become a symbol of national identity. Russian Duma deputy Marija Butina marked her black jacket with a Z in a Facebook Watch video and urged viewers of the video to do the same. She says (translated): “Join us in supporting our army and our president! Just put Z’s on your clothes!”

This viral symbolic use of the letter Z as a symbol of the war against Ukraine has actually led to companies feeling compelled to react and clearly distance themselves from Russia in their corporate communications. For example, Zurich Insurance, which had a stand-alone Z in its logo, partially changed it ( HERE ).

The fake

A reverse image search takes you to a hit in the Imago image database. The same picture is available for purchase there, but without three vehicles with the alphabet, but only with Z ( HERE ). ( Archive )

The image description translated reads:

Russia Ukraine Military Operation 8125345 02/24/2022 Military vehicles drive on a road in Armyansk in the north of Crimea, Russia. On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation in Ukraine after recognizing the independence of the breakaway republics of Donbass. Konstantin Michalschewskiy / Sputnik Armyansk Republic of Crimea Russia PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKonstantinxMikhaltschewskiyx

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

On April 22nd, almost exactly months later, the photo appeared in the manipulated version, i.e. with the alphabet added, on the Russian site Pikabu.ru ( HERE ). From then on it will be shared more and more on social networks.

MIMIKAMA

Conclusion

The photo of the Russian military column, which has the entire alphabet painted on the front of the vehicle instead of the typical Z, is fake. The original picture, taken on February 24th when the Russians invaded Ukraine, shows the identical situation and the vehicles have the war symbol Z on the vehicles. The manipulated image with the alphabet was only created two months later.

About the Ukraine war fact checks


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )